Bearing Disability: Support at University of Derby

I wrote this post awhile ago, but it was in major need of an update due to my four years at the establishment. This post discusses disability support at the University of Derby.

In 2015, I started studying at the University of Derby, and I got lucky. The University of Derby takes disability support into an enormous amount of consideration. That doesn’t mean that they were perfect; they often had their delivery vans block the disabled bays, making it hard to park. But they were very supportive from the moment that I started.

Each university should have a Disability Team that walks you through all the support that they can offer you. Each Uni is different and so is every experience—even on the open days, I was aware of this. One university said that classes were normally helped upstairs with no lift. The rooms were cramped, including the bigger rooms, so the university did not strike me as disabled-friendly. However, their Disability Support staff were nice.

Additionally, I have heard stories from several students who have had poor student support for their disabilities. Some of them ended up transferring university.

However, I can say Derby is always happy to help.

Get Ahead

Get Ahead is an event that the university runs for new students with disabilities. It aims to help students become familiar with the campus and their halls before the massive rush of able-bodied students. Forward Thinking is another similar event run by the university for students with specific learning disabilities. The two events, although similar, match the requirements each student needs.

Get Ahead is a really useful event to attend. I went twice. Once as an undergraduate and once as a Masters student. It was more helpful to me in my undergraduate than my masters, but I did know most of the information beforehand.

Cognative Behaviour Thearapy (CBT)

In Mid 2016, I was diagnosed with anxiety; something I suffered from as a young child but had no way of describing it to people until my diagnosis. I would freeze up and wrench if I saw a sign of an insect. At first, I was not physically sick; vomit came later, when my symptoms worsened over the years. But the physical movement when I wrenched pulled my stomach. It hurt. I couldn’t stop it and I couldn’t move for a period of time. It happened at restaurants too, especially if the place was crowded and I had not been there before.

I called the University of Derby in the summer to see if they offered a Cognitive behaviour service, and they offered a similar one. Waiting lists for mental health services are long. I knew I needed help as soon as possible, and not months down the line. I took the sessions as soon as my second year started. Within a few weeks, the symptoms lessened.

It did seem to work for a short time. It (and other support) got me through my degree with fewer anxiety tasks. However, the symptoms did eventually come back, and with vengeance, including actual vomit. With the return, I put my name down for CBT at Birmingham’s Mental Health Service before I started my masters.

The CBT-like treatment that Derby offered me meant that I had some tools before my CBT treatment and I was able to finetune and practice them as I tried exposure therapy.

I hardly have my anxiety attacks now. I get them occasionally, but they’re much better now and don’t prevent me from doing something for longer than a minute.

Support Mentors

With my diagnosis of anxiety, I was able to get a support mentor. She was, and still is, a kind woman. Sometimes, we would talk about things happening in and out of university that spiked my anxiety, such as treatment from fake friends, or issues at halls. We talked about my concerns about only having limited graduation tickets and a massive family. Sometimes we’d sit and brainstorm ideas for my latest writing project and coursework.

Whatever we did that week, she would listen, help me work out my mind and it felt good.

I noticed that my anxiety had less impact on me when I had visited this support mentor than when I did not see her. I feel this support really helped me improve my motivation and mental health.

During my masters, I learned I have dyslexia. This entitled me to more support. A 1-2-1 dyslexic specialist. He would help me use my new tools and help me go through my work to find any errors I may have missed through my dyslexia. My anxiety support mentor also did this with me before and after my diagnosis of dyslexia.

Getting Diagnosed with Dyslexia

The university was running a specific learning disability awareness event during my masters. This included:

• dyslexia
• dyspraxia
• dysgraphia
• dyscalculia

They offered a free screening using computer software on the campus library, so I took the test. I figured there was no harm in it but I didn’t expect much to come from it.

The test came back and told me I had indicators of both dyslexia and dyspraxia. The university agreed to pay for me to have a full test —which costs roughly £500—so long as I paid £50 towards it.

I went for the assessment and was diagnosed with dyslexia. The assessor was unable to test for dyspraxia as I have Cerebral Palsy which shares similar indicators with dyspraxia.

Extensions and Lecturers

My Cerebral Palsy entitled me to extensions on my work from the moment I started at the university. Originally, it was one week for my essays and assignments and two weeks for my dissertation. As I got more diagnoses, this was doubled.

All of my lecturers were supportive of any student with a disability—and there were a lot on my course. We had a few epileptics, people with autism, people with specific learning disabilities like dyslexia, physical disabilities, mental health, visual impairment.

If there was an issue, my lecturers would work hard to fix it. Once, the timetabling team put a group of thirty in a room fit for a group of fifteen. I mean, people literally had to sit on the desks and floor. Within a week or two, the lecturer got this changed. He made a point to illustrate how dangerous a cramped room can be to someone who is visually impaired, someone with epilepsy and someone with a lack of motor control.

These lecturers backed our corner every way, and I miss them. I still keep in contact with a good many of the lecturers but I miss being in their classes.

University Support

The university has always supported me and my disability. They did their best to accommodate me wherever they had to and I honestly feel I got lucky after hearing of some horror stories about other universities.

When choosing a university, it is important to spend the time shopping around and seeing how well you gel with the university. The minute I met my lecturers, I got a good vibe from them. They were easy to chat with from the first day and they were interested in every student. However, during open days at other universities, both undergraduate and masters, some of the lecturers at certain universities were harder to hold a conversation with.

Although lecturers have a professional relationship with you, it’s important you can chat to them too, because you may need help and advice from them. I know students who talked to their lecturers about family commitments and university balance, or work commitments and university. I talked about my experience at halls. They gave us all advice.

So, shop around. Ring the university up, tell them your needs, the things you struggle with. See what they can do to help you and what support is available. Maybe search some blogs for student experience when dealing with that universities support team.

If the correct support has been in place, then you should be fine. If you do come across any major errors along the way, let student wellbeing know, I am sure they will be more than happy to help you solve the issue.

Other than that, have fun.

Feel free to join my disability groups on facebook and discord